Posted
by
Soulskillon Tuesday November 27, 2012 @07:52PM
from the make-it-like-minecraft-and-you've-got-yourself-a-soldier dept.

Velcroman1 writes "Teenagers raised on Call of Duty and Halo might relish flying a massive Predator drone — a surprisingly similar activity. Pilots of unmanned military aircraft use a joystick to swoop down into the battlefield, spot enemy troop movements, and snap photos of terror suspects, explained John Hamby, a former military commander who led surveillance missions during the Iraq War. 'You're always maneuvering the airplane to get a closer look,' Hamby said. 'You're constantly searching for the bad guys and targets of interest. When you do find something that is actionable, you're a hero.' Yet a new study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found real-life drone operators can become easily bored. Only one participant paid attention during an entire test session, while even top performers spent a third of the time checking a cellphone or catching up on the latest novel. The solution: making the actual drone mission even more like a video game."

Most drone observations are surveillance. And it's made the battlefield safer and cleaner for both soldiers and civilians. You'd rather go back to the old "Bomb everything with this big bomb" paradigm?

Sorry. You could have replied with a reference to the Speaker for the Dead. I think it would be very appropriate that the people who are about to be shot from the air had someone to say a word on their behalf to someone. Not the drone pilots or their commanders, but to the executives who make the decision to kill them based on largely one-sided, information. Not as good as a due process, but still an improvement over Call of Duty.

At least you're out on a field where the other guy can shoot back, not in a cozy armchair,

Close contact with the enemy does not make one dispassionate, and less likely to commit war crimes. It is exactly the opposite. A grunt on a patrol probably hasn't slept more than a few hours in the last week. He is hungry, and tired. His whole body aches with fatigue and itches with bug bites. His canteens are empty and his eyes sting with sweat turned to brine. Just yesterday he saw his best friend get his foot blown off by by a "toe popper". You think he is going to make more ethical life and death decisions than a well-rested, well-fed operator in an air conditioned van in Nevada who is having his every decision recorded? The depersonalization of war is a GOOD THING. Mistakes are still made, but we do not see any intentional atrocities like we did at My Lai, or No Gun Ri.

I think Gith may have been refering to the idea that if fear is gone then war is easy. We can remove the fear by using remote drones, or by using people who have accepted and welcome their own death for a greater cause. Either works, and it's a really dumb arms race.

A common quote of combat pilots goes something like, "Combat flying is hours of boredom punctuated with a few seconds of complete terror." I've read something like this quote from several sources but most commonly from WWII pilots (and crew). Why should drone pilots expect it to be different?

At least the drone pilots get to go home even if the drone itself crashes, gets shot down, etc. I can imagine what a ball turret gunner from a B-17 or B-24 would say about the drone pilots being bored when they spent hours in a cramped, unpressurized, freezing cold turret scanning the airspace below the plane for approaching enemy interceptors; trying to stay alert and alive.

Ah, so that's why Drone operators never fire on civilians, funerals, first responders (look up 'double tap') or people who look like they would look at them funny at some point if they were ever in the same place.

Further, I seem to recall bomb strikes in the Vietnam war (by well-rested, well-protected pilots in airconditioned cockpits) that would most likely be classified as war crimes had anyone but american soldiers perpetrated them.

No, the impersonalisation of war is not a good thing. The end of war would be, and that is further off than ever, given the ease by which the US can keep bombing.